Upgrade (2018)

Upgrade (2018)

7/10

Starring

Logan Marshall-Green

Betty Gabriel

Harrison Gilbertson

Directed by Leigh Whannell

Upgrade is that one movie you just have to see. Everything about the way the movie builds up to the very unexpected ending is just cinematic wonder. The movie to me is one of the best movies so far to be written by Leigh Whannell. If you have not heard of that name, then maybe you are not into the Saw franchise. I’m not myself, but I have seen one movie and then knew he was the man behind them all and also behind the supernatural horror franchise Insidious. Leigh in this one wrote and directed this movie and the screenplay in this movie is epic.

The movie plays to the norm of you guessing your way through, you practically can guess all that will happen like three-quarters of the way, then the movie flips on you. Then again you can guess what is going to happen next, then it flips again. But the magic is the first three-quarters of you knowing what is going to happen it still has you gripped to see it through, that is the wonderful screenplay that Whannell wrote.

Upgrade is a cyberpunk action body horror, so mind you there are some gruesome scenes. The movie plot is set in the future when everything is managed by computers and it is about a man who basically is not in tune with the times. Although he can’t help it, many things about his present day is managed by computers anything he can do with his hands he does.

We get to meet his wife and he introduces her to a client of his, as he is returning a refurbished car to the said client. When she discovers that the client is a renowned tech innovator, working for a rival company of hers.

On their way home, they were involved in an accident as their self-driving car failed to follow instructions or directions back to their home. They found themselves in a deserted area, where his wife gets killed and he was shot in the neck. He becomes a quadriplegic, under the care of his mother. His attempt at suicide failed and it was then the tech innovator, promised to give him access back to his limbs, by inserting a chip called STEM which will be inserted to the base of his skull.

The chip gave him back the ability to move his limbs, but it also made him stronger and faster. Also it talks to him and it seems to have an agenda, to help him solve his wife’s murder.

The movie was a financial success, basically because not much of CGI is used in it. The acting was simple and the movie made use of people who could deliver on the role given to them, rather than looking for a popular name.

It was also a critical success, major praise going to the wonderful story telling. A potential sequel could be made from this, because the movie ended with enough juice to develop something new or explore the same people.